TITLE: 3 Fireflies
NAME: Neal Delfeld
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: delfeld@yahoo.com
TOPIC: Insects and Spiders
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: 3fiflies.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    POV-Ray 3.1e

TOOLS USED: 
    Paint Shop Pro 4, a computer.

RENDER TIME: 
    2 minutes

HARDWARE USED: 
    Microsoft-based


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


        Three fireflies over a foggy river. 
        Color is defined as a certain wavelength range within light.  The
visible range is from white to black.  The range is limited to human sight, and
there are various hue separations within the spectrum.  These separations are
arbitrary until a meaning is applied.  
        One distinction that becomes important is "line".  A line is a contrast
between values within or between hues.  At this point, color gains a meaning:
it separates space. 
        These spaces are arbitrary, too.  Putting them together in certain ways
creates rhythms within a 2D space, and can imitate actual motion.
        Spaces are not only created by line, but also can be made with
variations of hue or value.  
        Fireflies contain both line and variation spaces within their form:
bright light and chemical diffusions.  They use this to their advantage to
attract a mate, helping to encourage reproduction.
        Insects generally spend their lives eating and mating, or striving to do
those two things.  
        The essence of a firefly's being is both clearly defined and structured,
and limited within certain, yet vague, interests.  
        Though these distinctions and limits exist, each firefly is a singular
being, without necessary reliance on the conditions of its origins.  This is
shown in that not all fireflies light up when captured in a jar, though do
immediately on release.  This may not be choice in the same terms that humans
can achieve, but independence from intrinsic limits still exists.  That is,
they are still beings within a universe which is mostly non-existence.
        This description is meant to clarify the more difficult language of
imagery.  It is difficult only because there is no base set of rules that
everyone follows (or should follow) when creating or viewing an image.  Rather,
each image must establish and hold to its own criteria.  


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


        Shadowless background plane, gradient X texture_map within a gradient Y
texture_map.
        Formula for connecting cylinders and spheres to make the bar-shapes
individually.  
        Simple shapes for the fireflies, with a media for the light.  Learned
that media must be exterior of a plane in POV-Ray.  
        3 lights in front of the pipes, behind the camera. 
        Border is a high-contrast version of the image, enlarged and put behind
the original.

